LOS ANGELES — Shortly after 6 p.m. on March 16, 2008, Officer Scott McGowan arrived at the Santa Monica home of 21-year-old aspiring model and actress Juliana Redding for a welfare check. Redding’s mother in Arizona could not reach her by phone.
McGowan’s knocking and shouting went unanswered. He noticed a small amount of blood on the sidewalk and was overwhelmed by the smell of gas coming from inside. He quickly established there was no forced entry or any broken windows. Because of the smell of gas, he called the fire department. With the help of another officer trained in picking locks, they managed to get into the apartment.
Once inside, the cops noticed a candle burning on the coffee table. As they entered the kitchen, one of the stove’s burners was turned up with the pilot light off. They quickly realized this was a bomb waiting to go off and a fast way to get rid of the evidence.
From the kitchen, McGowan could see Redding lying dead on the bed in her bedroom.
Police began investigating the crime scene and believed Redding knew her attacker and willingly let them into her apartment. The police also believed the killer entered the apartment around 10 p.m. on March 15, 2008.
A neighbor had reported hearing screams, and furniture moved around 9:53 p.m.
Crime scene investigators collected a large amount of DNA at the crime scene. Blood was found on Redding’s skin and clothes; her cell phone, the stove knob, and blood drop were on a plate.
Police later checked Redding’s cell phone and saw that she called 911, but the call was terminated before it could go through.
Overall, the crime scene looked like a hasty attempt by the killer to clean up the blood. Police found a bottle of household cleaner and a scrub brush on the kitchen counter.
A forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Juliana recounted the contusions and cuts that covered her body. Burst capillaries in her eyes, he said, indicated that the killer had clenched Juliana’s throat so tightly that the flow of blood was stopped. Bones in her neck had been crushed, and scratches under her chin, he said, came from Juliana’s own fingernails as she fought desperately to break her attacker’s grip (Faturechi and Rubin, Dec. 5, 2010).
Police began interviewing Redding’s friends and family to determine who might want to hurt her.
At one time, Redding was romantically involved with her boss, Dr. Munir Uwaydah, her father’s business partner. Greg Redding had agreed to go into business with Uwaydah, managing a pharmacy and developing products for a medical manufacturing company Uwaydah founded.
In October 2007, Greg Redding learned that Uwaydah was married and had children. He advised his daughter to end the relationship with Uwaydah. Five days before Reddin’gs murder, her father pulled out of the business venture after growing suspicious of Uwaydah.
As the investigation continued, detectives learned that Uwaydha hired Kelly Soo Park, a 47-year-old real estate broker, to intimidate people who wronged him. Greg Redding once referred to her as Uwaydah’s “James Bond.” Park was tall and not afraid to get in a person’s face. She was his “muscle.”
The DNA tested belonged to a female. Police followed Park and picked up one of her cigarette butts. Her DNA matched the DNA found at the crime scene.
On March 17, 2010, authorities arrested Park for Redding’s murder. She pleaded not guilty and was granted a $3.5 million bail. Two days after Park’s arrest, Uwaydah fled the country. Authorities believe he went to Beirut and remains there today.
Prosecutors believed Uwaydah hired Park to intimidate and scare Greg Redding’s daughter as payback for the elder Redding backing out of their business dealings. The intimidation process went wrong, and Park killed Reddomg.
However, for some screwed-up reason, the jury never hears this information.
The case finally went to trial in May 2013. The prosecution opened with the DNA evidence, believing this was a slam-dunk conviction due to the overwhelming amount found at the crime scene and that it matched Park’s DNA.
The defense never tried proving it wasn’t Park’s DNA. Instead, the defense argued that the DNA evidence found and tested did not prove Park killed Redding because the DNA could have been transferred.
The real killer could have cleaned up the crime scene, expunged it of all DNA, then inadvertently planted Kelly Soo Park’s DNA by using a towel that Kelly may have used once five months earlier at Dr. Uwaydah’s Beverly Hills house — a place Park had visited, and Juliana had once lived (48 Hours)
And the jury bought it.
Despite overwhelming DNA evidence and matching that DNA to Park, Park was acquitted of the murder of Redding.
The two people who were responsible for Redding’s brutal murder walk free. And that, my friends, is injustice.
Update, September 2015: Park “performed hundreds of surgeries in $150M scam, LA prosecutors say“
References
Faturechi, Robert and Joel Rubin. 2010. “Detectives Say Santa Monica Actress Dialed 911 Moments Before She Was Killed.” Los Angeles Times. December 6. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-dec-05-la-me-juliana-redding-20101205-story.html (accessed October 20, 2014).
Last updated in March 2023